


Oliver Hates Waiting in Line

by SteelRigged



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Drabble, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Humor, Protective Oliver, olicity - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-27
Updated: 2016-11-27
Packaged: 2018-04-06 12:58:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4222554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SteelRigged/pseuds/SteelRigged
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was December 17th 2015, and Felicity, despite being six months pregnant, insisted that they go to the midnight showing of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Very short ficlet.

Oliver was uncomfortable with how exposed they were, but he didn’t have much choice. It was December 17th 2015, and his Felicity, despite being six months pregnant, had insisted that they go to the midnight showing of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

“Thanks for bringing the camp chair,” she said with a smile and a hand on her belly. “It’s perfect.” 

Oliver smiled back at her, on sheer reflex.

Felicity shifted a bit restlessly. “I know these are going to be better than the prequels," she said in a worried tone, for the nth dozen time. "They have to be better than the prequels, how could they be worse?” she took a sip from her thermos. “FYI, the chocolate is at the perfect drinking temperature. You should have some.”

Oliver had arranged for seating and security. Felicity had packed snacks and purchased tickets online. It was a basic division of labor.

Oliver was just about to offer her the same bland words of comfort about the movie he'd repeated all afternoon: he'd given up suggesting that they go home and wait for the first reviews a couple of hours ago. Before he could summon the words though, Felicity smiled widely and hauled herself out of the chair, waving her arms above her head.

“Over here!” Felicity called to Digg and Lyla, who were just crossing the parking lot.

“I’m so glad you decided to come!” Felicity said, giving them hugs and handing out thermoses. “I know you guys are more of a Star Trek family, but seeing you here gives me hope that we will still be able to do cool stuff after the baby.”

John snorted and sipped his chocolate. Lyla gave him the stink eye.

“Actually, this is the first movie in a theater we been to in a while," Lyla explained. "Most of the time we just stream stuff.”

Oliver did not offer them chairs. Oliver had only brought a seat for Felicity. No one else needed to sit down. Sitting down took away your attention from your environment and left you less ready to address threats.

“Yea, I get it,” Felicity said with an understanding smile. “Oliver wanted me to find a way to pirate a copy of this, but sometimes you’ve just got to have the theater experience. I wanted to see the new Star Wars with the Star Wars crowd.” 

She patted Oliver’s arm as she talked. His shoulder were stiffer than he wanted them to be. He forced himself to relax. 

“It wasn’t going to the movie so much that bothered me,” Oliver found himself saying. “It was her plan to get in line at two o’clock and camp out all evening.”

Felicity beamed. “It's been great! I tried to explain that its like tailgating for geeks, but I don't think he understood till we got here."

"I did not," Oliver agreed darkly.

John gave Lyla a look, and she looked away quickly. She did not crack a smile. 

"It's been so much fun! I didn't realize how cooped up I've felt," Felicity said with a chuckle. "There’s a set of guys down the line that brought foam noodle light sabers. I sparred with them for like an hour and beat four out of six.” She was giddily proud of herself, and made slicing motions with an invisible blade "Vroosh. Vroosh"

“She sparred with them. For like an hour.” Oliver repeated. He did not sound nearly as happy about the incident.

Digg and Lyla glanced at each other. Digg did not manage to maintain a straight face. Lyla smirked in triumph.

“They were fine,” Felicity continued rolling her eyes. “All very respectful of the baby bump. They're from some Aikido school and they all followed perfect larping rules. Plus, Oliver glared at them the whole time," she paused briefly, blinking. "I just realized some of them might have let me win because Oliver was glaring.” 

“One of them made you fall,” Oliver growled.

“It was a tiny trip! A stumble. I caught myself almost instantly. I didn’t even hit the ground!” She snapped back at him. Oliver looked like he was going to say something else, but Felicity put up her hand. "Don't you say anything about the belly! It. Is. Important. For. Pregnant. People. To. Get. Exercise."

“Soooo,” interrupted Diggle. “Is anyone else going to join us?” 

“Thea,” Oliver replied. 

“She’s actually here already,” Felicity said with a smirk. "Though she's come and gone like four times. Oliver keeps telling her I neeeeeed stuff."

"You said you wanted pizza!" Oliver replied defensively. 

"I said that the pizza our neighbors were eating smelled good. Not the same thing," Felicity replied teasingly.

Oliver huffed.

Digg cocked an eyebrow. "So is Thea off running an errand then?" he asked

"No," Felicity said, eyes twinkling. "She's taking advantage of her brother's current over protectiveness. See he won't leave me alone, even with my stool and hot chocolate. And I've been absolute that one of us has to hold our place. So she's been doing her thing without interference from us. Because we can't split up."

"And her thing is?" Digg asked amused.

Felicity pointed toward the back of the line where a group young men were gathered in a circle cheering, several in storm trooper costumes, many shaking foam swords over their heads.

“I bet half of them are in love with her by now,” Felicity said with a smile.

“At least,” Lyla agreed with a laugh. 

"I never liked lines," Oliver glowered. 


	2. Waiting is Better with Food.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang hangs out before Rouge One.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ewok Onigri can be seen here:http://lydmc.blogspot.com/2013/06/return-of-ewoks-star-wars-themed-sushi.html
> 
> Tie fighter cake pops: http://ashleemarie.com/tie-fighter-oreo-pops/  
> R2D2 Popcorn Mix: http://www.twosisterscrafting.com/star-wars-popcorn/

Olicity: Rouge One

“I don’t like having her out here with all of these men in masks,” Oliver said. He didn’t speak loudly but the rumble of his voice went right through Felicity’s shoulder blades. He was standing with one arm wrapped around her waist and his head on a swivel. “Why couldn’t we just wait a week and come for baby day like we did with Ghostbusters.”

“Uh, because the 501st and the Rebel Legion did not come out for Ghostbusters?” Felicity replied.

It was Saturday, December 17, 2016. Felicity had relented about going to see the midnight showing of Star Wars: Rouge One, but only because she’d found a local museum, with an imax, that was running a series of family friendly Star Wars events all day Saturday, the first full day of the opening. It was civic pride and geek pride all at once, the tailgate she longed for. It had been a rough fall and Felicity needed to be out among her people. 

Despite Oliver’s stated discomfort about the men in masks, and his general demeanor as a curmudgeon, it had actually been easier than Felicity expected to convince him to come out, and stay out. Civic pride, see. As an unopposed candidate, Oliver had gotten the privilege of being mayor without having to put a (D) or (R) behind his name. But, not liking labels didn’t mean that Oliver’s life didn’t make statement about who he was: a man with a Jewish wife, and a Jewish daughter. A man with a black best friend. A man who proudly hung out with an interracial gay couple, that he clearly respected As. A. Married. Couple. Felicity didn’t think that Oliver had considered any of that political. Well, he hadn’t considered it political last year. This year… 

Felicity considered it political. She knew very well what it was like to grow up poor, and Jewish, and nerdy, and outside, and Alt-right only meant Neo-Nazi. So, she wanted to keep counting the fingers and toes of all her mishpocha family. She expected her husband to stand-by her. She expected Oliver Queen to use all his skills to keep their merry band safe. Today that meant being the Mayor, at a Star Wars premier about rebels with hope. They needed to be out, in public, living in joy, “pushing” that racially diverse, pro-gay, multiple religious creed, feminist lifestyle that seemed to upset so many people these days.

Baby Diana though, she was too young for politics. (Her own politics, being a baby didn’t stop people from projecting.) She was there for Stormtroopers. She gurgled happily as Felicity bounced her, and held her up high. Diana was just under a year and easily distracted, but she followed her mother's fingers when Felicity pointed something out with a happy maternal coo in her voice. “There they go, aren’t they lucky it’s December? Those suits are stuffy-wuffy”

Even better than the stormtroopers for Diana though, was John, Jr. Because J.J. was Diana’s favorite. Lyla bounced her baby boy on her hip. As long as he was happy with the Stormtroopers, Diana would be happy with the Stormtroopers. Digg and Lyla had fully embraced The Force Awakens. They’d dressed as Finn and Rey for Halloween with J.J. in the cutest little BB-8 costume. 

(Felicity and Oliver had been Velma and Shaggy, with Diana dressed as Scooby-Doo. It wasn’t that Felicity didn’t love their family costumes, she did, it was just that she’d liked Digg’s and Lyla’s more. Oliver had given her a wink and promised, Promised!, that in 20 years they could dress up as old Han and Leia. It was what she needed to hear. It was better than hearing they would do original trilogy Han and Leia in 2017.)

J.J. pointed at a Stormtrooper, or all the Stormtroopers really, he was only two, and yelled “Finn!” 

Lyla laughed. 

“Daddy Finn!” J.J. insisted again. And Lyla gave him a proud look. 

“Yes, baby you’re right,” Lyla said. “I’m surprised you remember Daddy was Finn, but you are right, he was. Not today, though. Daddy is still on his way.”

Felicity held up a hand, “High-five for an on point trivia game J.J.” J.J. slapped her hand and smiled.

A storm trooper waived back to them and Diana turned her little head into Felicity’s shoulder before peeking out again bravely. 

Felicity tilted her head toward the baby and spoke in an gentle engaging sing-song. “It’s okay ladybug,” Felicity encouraged her daughter. “They’re friendly.” Diana wrinkled her nose up doubtfully, and pulled at the oversized pink safety pin on Felicity’s collar and Felicity leaned into Oliver with a sigh. “Besides, we’ve got all the best possible defenders here already don’t we?” she stood on her tiptoes and kissed the edge of his jaw. He squeezed her hip in response.

“I haven’t seen Thea or Curtis since you gave them those fancy lightsabers,” Oliver said. 

He pulled slightly at her him and they fell back, comfortably in sync, stepping away from the crowd of people watching the stormtroopers march. Felicity caught Lyla’s eye, but the other woman shrugged, and stayed where she was. It looked like J.J. wasn’t ready to walk away from the Stormtroopers yet.

“You could go play, too,” Felicity suggested to Oliver. The museum park wasn’t enormous but they’d claimed their space early. A small picnic was laid out on a blanket about 20 feet away. “Paul and I will be fine until my mom comes to pick up Diana.”

Oliver made a non-committal grunt which Felicity interpreted to mean “I do kinda want to go show off with that green lightsaber you made me, but I’m really not comfortably leaving you and the baby undefended in a crowd of strangers.”

Felicity gave him a naughty smile. “Or,”she teased “you could hold the baby and I could go play.”

“Or,” he teased back, taking Diana, “I could hold the baby and you could try my Death Star calzones.”

“Also a very good idea,” Felicity said, “is it dinner time? You said we had to wait until dinner time.”

“It’s 5:30, our show is at 6:45, so yes, it’s dinner time.” 

He smiled at her and she stood on her tiptoes and gave him peck on the lips.

“Really?” she asked

“Really,” 

She bit her lip. “Though, honestly they may be too adorable to eat.” 

“They are not too adorable to eat,” He said, with a lopsided smile.

“Why does that sound dirty when you say it?”

He stifled a snort, and started to respond, but then Diana shifted in his arms and he seemed to think better of saying anything. He wet his lips and smiled at Felicity, breathing out in a sigh, and letting his head tilt from one side to the other. 

Felicity looked back at him in amusement. “Are you blushing?”

“I’m holding the baby.”

Felicity giggled.

“Now who’s blushing?” Oliver asked. 

She giggled again, and shook her head turning away to walk the last few steps to their picnic. She settled onto the blanket, her skirt poofing out lightly. 

Paul looked over the top of his book at her, then up at Oliver. “So you’re finally going to lay it on the line, Oliver? Should I text Curtis?”

“Oh absolutely,” Felicity said, “Because my man is going to show you up! Curtis and his braggart swagger should have to watch your fall.”

“You keep singing his praises, Felicity,” Paul said, fingers flicking across his phone. “But I don’t think he can back it up.” Paul looked Oliver up and down skeptically.

“Whatever,” Felicity said, “Curtis has made you way too overconfident. Just because Oliver looks like a stock photo masculine trope doesn’t mean he’s not down with his feminine side.”

“MmmHmmm,” Paul replied raising an eyebrow.

The entire meal this year was light-years fancier than it had been last year. Because while it was easy to persuade Curtis to stand in line with them, Paul had been a tougher nut to crack. In the end he’d liked the idea of nerd tailgating, because it let him try all the tailgating recipes on epicurious. 

Of course, once Felicity and Curtis had realized that was the weak point, the fulcrum of participation, they’d begun the husband games. Deftly maneuvering Paul and Oliver into a competitive display of one-ups-manship centered on finger foods. This was the final round, and they each had brought three dishes to prove that they were the true culinary Jedi Master.

Paul opened his cooler and pulled out a styrofoam brick of tie-fighter cake pops. They were adorable, coated in chocolate with tiny cookie wings, and details in silver icing. He handed the block to Felicity who oohed and aahed appreciatively. She silently ranked them for icing perfection and chose her favorite. (Third in, second row). Next were a set of filled rolled buns.

“Cinnamon buns?” Felicity asked, eyebrow cocked.

“Cheddar and herb. Leia’s more savory than sweet, right?”

Felicity snorted. 

The finally was two sets of fancy popcorn mixes, a C3PO themed one and an R2D2 one. C3PO was yellow with curry powder, and mixed with a variety of with spicy asian rice crackers in various golden hues. While the R2D2 mix was salty sweet with popcorn drizzled with white chocolate and tossed with blue M&Ms, red peanut M&Ms, and mini marshmallows.

“My tribute to the only canonically gay couple in the series,” Paul said. "Though I will never stop believing in Luke and Wedge."

“This is an impressive spread, Paul,” Oliver said. “Those cake pops are amazing, did you do all the icing work yourself?”

“Yes!” Paul said proudly. “To be honest, they were my favorite to make. I loved building up the detail.”

Paul gave Felicity a shady look, but she just rolled her eyes. Yes. Paul’s spread was cool. Two types of popcorn mix was fudging the rules, but that didn’t matter. Not really. Felicity was not worried because she had seen the mini-calzones. Each had a single large homemade meatball, that made them rounder than normal when wrapped in golden pastry, and decorated with smaller bits of pastry in the distinctive patterning of the Death Star. 

She hadn’t gotten to try one, obviously, but Oliver had served the leftover sauce and meat crumble over pasta last night, and she had melted in her chair. She looked up a Oliver and gave him a conspiratorial wink. He looked back at her with a bit of a side eye. A sly warning to stay calm and not blow his cover. He enjoyed overturning people’s shallow impressions of him, of taking them by surprise. He hadn’t fully adjusted to having a hypeman. 

“I guess it’s my turn,” he said, handing the baby over to Felicity.

Curtis and Thea ambled over right about then, still deep in their own conversation. “I can’t believe that you aren’t a Rey Skywalker partisan!” Curtis said.

“Oh whatever!” Thea replied. “Rey can stand on her own story, I don’t think it matters at all who her father is.” 

“That’s not the point!” Curtis continued. “There is an inherent misogyny in denying female characters the same kind of complex legacies that are carried all the time by men.”

“No, the point is, we are about to watch a movie with a bad ass female lead and all you can talk about is Jyn Erso’s love life.” Thea crossed her arms over her chest. “You are the shippiest shipper to ever ship.”

“Say that three times fast,” Rene ‘Wild Dog’ Ramirez said appearing out of nowhere. Well actually it was just from the space behind Curtis. 

“Oh, by the way, look who we found!” Curtis said. 

“I’m glad you made it!” Felicity said, “Star Wars brings us all together, and we’d have had way too much food if you hadn’t shown.”

Oliver nodded a greeting to Rene who nodded back.

“You cook, Blondie?” Rene asked.

“I cook,” Oliver responded. “Felicity burns things.” Rene did a sexist double take, but Felicity couldn’t bring herself to care. “Felicity and Curtis cooked up the lightsabers, though” Oliver said with a twinkle in his eye. Oliver’s personal enjoyment of upending people’s impressions had grown to cover her a long time ago. 

Rene wrinkled his brow in confusion. So Curtis lifted his lightsaber up to show off the blade. 

“We used two high powered LED diodes with impact resistant translucent carbon tubing, but the creativity was all in the handle. This one is styled to look like a relic from the Jedi enclave located on the Crystal world of Ilum--” Before he could explain the rest, Thea parried the sword out of Curtis’s hands with a wicked grin, snatching it out of the air before it could fall and cartwheeled into challenge stance with both blade brandished.

“Really?” Curtis asked. “I wasn’t finished explaining the specs.”

Rene blinked and gulped. Then remembered to close his mouth.

“They’ll look even cooler once the sun goes down,” Felicity said with pride “Are Rory and Evelyn here, too?”

“Yeah,” said Rene “They went to will call. We all got a 411 text from Digg, telling us to show up and come hungry.” 

Felicity looked suspiciously at Oliver. He shrugged, seeming just as confused as she was. 

“I didn’t know Digg was planning on cooking anything,” he said. 

Paul looked suspicious. “I am perfectly happy opening up this little culinary competition, but you still got to lay it on the line, Oliver. I want to see what you brought.”

“Okay,” Oliver agreed. He reached into the cooler and pulled out his first tupperware. “I wanted to start with something light and good for the kids, so these are melon sabers, cantaloupe, honeydew, and watermelon. The handles are homemade pretzel. There are also dipping sauces: yogurt for the kids, chili and lime for the adults.” 

He offered Diana a plain stick of cantaloupe and the baby gummed at it happily, drooling orange mush onto her shirt. Paul nodded his head noncommittally. 

“Next, SushiEwoks. I mean really we should call then OnigriEwoks, because they are actually rice balls. I made three flavors: smoked salmon/cream cheese, Basil/cucumber/crab, and Nori/tuna/wasabi.” 

Paul blanched a little at the Ewoks. Felicity felt smug. 

“Finally, my death star calzones.” Oliver opened the tray and fragrant steam poured out. “I’ve been testing different packages for weeks to make sure I could keep them hot.”

Paul licked his lips even though Felicity knew he didn’t mean to. The calzones smelled good.

“Oh I get it, you leaned toward the savory while Paul leans toward the sweet,” Curtis said. Sitting down and nestling into his husband. “Well good for me that I have a sweet tooth. I mean those calzones look amazing, but R2D2 popcorn is my favorite. Like favorite.”

Paul looked at Curtis sweetly and patted his thigh. Curtis winked back at him.

“I don’t think we can honestly assess anything until we taste it all,” Paul said.

“I’m down to eat,” Rene said. “But not the Ewoks. You can’t eat Ewoks, even ones made of rice.”

“I can,” Thea said reaching for a smoked salmon onigiri. 

Felicity leaned over and kissed Oliver on the cheek. “Well done,” she whispered taking a calzone. 

Just then Digg arrived, toting an insulated bag that Felicity knew only too well. 

“You didn’t,” she said to Oliver quietly.

“Digg was worried that they were eating too much fast food,” Oliver replied sheepishly "I showed him a few tricks."

“Sometimes I think you must have an endorsement contract, product placement, something. It is just unnatural for anyone to be that enamored of a counter top appliance.” She hadn’t meant for anyone to overhear them, but the blanket wasn’t that big.

“What you got in the bag, Digg?” Thea asked.

Digg set down the bag and unzipped it, pulling out a still warm slow-cooker. “Chili!” he said proudly.

Felicity closed her eyes, in a silent prayer. Diana gurgled excitedly in her lap and waived at Digg. Oliver smiled down at her. 

“You know that she’s a baby,” Felicity said, before Oliver could twist the situation to his advantage, “and therefore, her enthusiasm is not a slow cooker endorsement.”

Oliver scrunched up his nose and rubbed his stubble against baby Diana’s cheek. She giggled wildly. Felicity interpreted that as a sign of solidarity between the two. Which it was. That baby knew who buttered her bread. Or mashed her bananas as the case might be.

“Don’t tell Mama,” he whispered, “but grandma’s coming early to eat with us, too.”

Felicity wanted to be annoyed. She wanted to have a moment of protest about Oliver inviting her mother without telling her, but Digg was handing out cups of chili and little corn bread muffins, Paul and Curtis were feeding each other popcorn, Rene was trying onigiri to impress Thea, while Thea was waving at Rory and Evelyn as they walked over, and Lyla crossed in front of them chasing J.J. who had just seen his father and was sprinting toward him at full speed, then Digg caught J.J. and spun him around in the air. 

And Felicity, baby in her lap, Oliver at her side, couldn’t be annoyed at anything.

**Author's Note:**

> I am amazed at how quickly people are finding and liking this fic. Arrow fans are the best!


End file.
